Solving Secretary Problems With An Online Assistant

Solving Secretary Problems With An Online Assistant

Do you always find yourself on a rush to complete presentations when meeting a client?

Do you feel desperate to put everything into place yet always end up with half-done reports?

Do you feel like you badly need an assistant yet hiring in-house staff is just way too expensive?

Private Secretary – your own Artificial intelligent assistant

Maybe it’s time for you to consider getting an online secretary. It could be an instant solution for all your business worries. Hiring an online assistant as a sidekick will finally turn your life around.

Online assistants relieve stress from a heavy workload. An established rapport with your online secretary will ensure more consistent full-time help, and will reduce the high cost of temporary staffing solutions. When faced with a crisis, your online assistant can work side by side with you to weather the storm. You can even get some spontaneous additional help without the overhead costs upon hiring your online staff.

An online secretary is just like any prospective employee with various expertise and professional experiences. The following are some guidelines which will help you on how to find and hire an online secretary, how to work with them, and what help they can give you.

How to find an online assistant

As with other employees, recommendations are the best referral. In the absence of referrals, you can try to search for outsourcing websites on the net. Various results will sure be shown. You just have to be extra vigilant and do further research on the background of the company providing the outsourcing service.

How to choose the right one

This process is no different from hiring an in house employee, except that you don’t get to be with the person physically. The interview process is commonly conducted through video calls on Skype to allow you to meet, and work with them face to face through the computer.

An online secretary doesn’t need to be in the same city as you. Ask similar questions as for any potential staffing interview, you can ask for sample work and likely give a test of ability. You should also visit her online profile to see what services she offers. This will be a working relationship, so you should look for someone with a compatible style to your own, and your goal is to establish a sound working partnership wherein your online assistant can actually anticipate your needs just like your in-house secretary.

Technologies that you will need

Since an online secretary works from home, most of their tasks are sent through email. If you consider your online secretary as your primary assistant, you can also set up a computer on your office that she can use using an encrypted remote access.
How to explain tasks to your online secretary

Having an online secretary is no different from having a new in-house staff. Since your online secretary works off-site, clear communication is always essential. Follow up verbal instructions after sending an email.

Do not assume that your online secretary understands what you want. Make sure you are on the same wavelength. Breaking down the task into distinct stages that must be checked before proceeding to the next, especially early in your relationship, allows you to be sure that there are no misunderstandings before the work.

Anticipate questions and clarifications especially because you both work at a distance. As with all staff, the more you work together, the less likely misunderstandings are to happen, but there will be an initial learning curve.

What can an online secretary do for you?

This actually depends on what you need. There are numbers of online secretaries and they have their own fields of expertise. An online secretary can do almost everything just like an in house secretary, except preparing coffee of course.

There could be various tasks that you can assign to your online secretary; it will depend on the needs of your business. But to help you loosen up a bit from all your workload, you can assign small yet time consuming tasks like data entry, managing your emails, sending letters, fixing your schedules, and setting up reminders.

With enough training, your online secretary can even become one of your company’s biggest assets.